


Inquiry

by exocara



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Paranormal Investigators, do not be fooled by the summary this is serious, non-binary mammon, okay maybe not really considering that i am the author
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-17 21:52:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4682723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exocara/pseuds/exocara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tsuna is a high school student living alone in the student dorms of his school when he gets mixed up with the Arcobaleno Psychic Research team. There was an... unfortunate accident regarding one of the members and now he has to take their place. </p><p>Tsuna is a coward. </p><p>This... is not going to go well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Thoughts,  Chapter I

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by ghost hunt and my love of all things supernatural. this might turn out to be arco27, just warning. but either way, it will involve a positive relationship between the arcobaleno and tsuna. unfortunately, the other guardians will not be playing that big of a part in this one. 
> 
> the title is based on the fact that inquiry is a synonym for investigation, and also the IB ost named Inquiry.

_How in the world did this happen?_

The boy ran through the school corridor. Was it always this long? The path seemed to stretch out for forever. No matter how much, how fast he ran, he could never see the end.

The pitter-patter of footsteps behind him grew louder and louder. He couldn’t let her catch up to him. He had to run away. He had to hide.

He could feel her chilled breath on his neck, the grotesque stench from her mouth almost overwhelming his senses. With every second that passed, the temperature around him became colder and colder.

An uninterrupted stretch of pale cream walls on one side, windows overlooking a inky black world on the other. There was no place for him to hide.

_I never meant for it to be this way!_

Suddenly, he saw a door and hope blossomed in his chest. With a desperate burst of speed, he sprinted into the room and slammed the door behind him, locking it. He could hear scratching on the other side of the door but, to his relief, the flimsy wood never gave away.

Soon, the scratching subsided and the boy slowly backed away from the door. His breathing began to even out when he bumped into something wet. His heart rate immediately doubled in speed as he slowly turned his head.

A bloated, grotesque face entered his line of sight, smiling with its mouth wide open. Its teeth were black and green and half of them were missing. Cold puffs of breath blew into his face, stinking of stagnant pond water and dead fish. The boy trembled as long, wet, clumps of dark greenish black brushed against his cheek. The face leaned closer to the boy.

“I’ve _found_ you, my love!”

He screamed.

-o-

**Afternoon, Saturday.  
Moriki High School, Class 1-A.**

Tsuna’s seat was behind Akiyama’s and therefore, even though he wasn’t very close to the boy, Tsuna was constantly reminded of his absence.

It had been three days since Akiyama had gone missing. The police had come in to investigate but there was no evidence of… _anything_. It was as if Akiyama had simply just disappeared into thin air.

Of course, that only served to fuel the rumours.

“He was taken, wasn’t he?” Tsuna heard a girl whisper to her friend. “By the _nure onago_.”

“Really? Wasn’t it because of the child in the computer lab?” her friend replied.

“I’d rather think it was the _nure onago_ ,” the girl confessed. “It doesn’t target girls so I feel safer that way.”  

A few weeks after Tsuna had started his first year at Moriki – having moved from Namimori into the area after his mother passed away – rumours of the school being haunted started. At first it was generic things like a ghost in the last stall of the girls’ toilet, or an invisible dog prowling the school at night (which scared Tsuna more than any ghost, to be honest). Those were stories one would hear in any school.

Then it evolved into hearing voices in the computer lab and having something touch your legs in the science labs. When it was raining so heavily that you could hardly make out what was a few feet in front of you, you would be able to see someone standing at the abandoned bus stop that was just opposite school. If you talked to them, something bad would happen.

The teachers refused to believe the students who reported the mysterious happenings to them, thinking that it was just superstition. Those things never happened to Tsuna before, and he was thankful for it. However, he was one of the few students who lived in the dorms on the school compound and he dreaded the day he was going to encounter… _things_.

One day, Akiyama marched into the school and boasted that he had talked to the mysterious person standing at the bus stop. Apparently, it was a _nure onago_ , a woman who had long, dripping wet hair and appeared drenched and stinking of decay or something, and would fall in love with you and follow you around if you so much as smiled at her. He talked about how the _nure onago_ followed him home and he had to get some type of charm in order to chase her away. In Tsuna’s opinion, he seemed a little too relaxed to have had encountered something like that.

The few days before Akiyama vanished, Tsuna had observed that he kept looking over his shoulder, as if expecting to see something there. He would shiver often and wrinkle his nose as if he smelled something horrible. Bags appeared under his eyes and his movements became a lot more erratic. That was when Tsuna believed him about the _nure onago_.

Since Akiyama had disappeared, it had been raining continuously and heavily. People have mentioned that they, too, could see a person at the bus stop. Tsuna played it safe and refused to leave the school campus, barricading himself in his dorm room and living on his own cooking. He dreaded the day he would run out of ingredients.

The school bell rang, signalling the end of school. Before anyone could leave the classroom, however, the class representative stood up and made an announcement. She said something about people who had had encounters with the supernatural meeting someone at the reception room. It didn’t really have anything to do with Tsuna so he just stood up and left.

When he crossed over from the main school building to the dormitories, he resolutely looked down at his feet and did not glance at the bus stop opposite the school.

-o-

There was more homework today than usual and when Tsuna was finished with it, he found that it was already twilight. Normally Tsuna wouldn’t have been so absorbed in his homework that he lost track of time but ever since his mother died, Tsuna had, _well_ , tried to be a little better at his life in general so that she’d have some peace of mind when she was watching over him. Also, he was desperate to have something, _anything_ , to take his mind off the matter of Akiyama’s disappearances and the occurrences happening around school that he had basically threw his entire soul into finishing his homework with a single-minded determination.

Tsuna hadn’t bathed yet and the bathroom on his level was just down the hall. It wasn’t very far away, considering that he was the only one staying on that level and hence he could pick wherever he’d like, but in the light of recent situations, even the short trek to the bathroom seemed daunting.

The sun was nowhere in the sky, but a faint light still shone from the horizon, casting the entire world in a strange shade of pink and orange. All Tsuna could see were solid black silhouettes and he took a few minutes to debate about whether he wanted to gather his courage and bathe, or if he wanted to just shut himself in his room and marinate in the filth he had accumulated throughout the day. In the end, he decided that hygiene was more important.

He grabbed his flashlight before he left his room.  

-o-

Tsuna finished bathing in less than five minutes. He rushed out of the cubicle he was in and ran straight into something. He stiffened.

_Why was someone in the bathroom when Tsuna was literally the only living human being on this entire floor?_

Slowly, Tsuna brought his gaze up to see long, wet, black hair. And he stopped, heart leaping into his throat. In his utter terror, he did not notice that the person in front of him was not a woman and his hair was merely damp, not dripping wet. There was also an absence of pungent smells. However, nothing was going into Tsuna’s head and all Tsuna could see was Akiyama’s description of the _nure onago._

“I DON’T WANT TO DIE!” Tsuna half screamed, half sobbed as he continuously swung the flashlight at the person in front of him.

“W-wait! There’s a—! Misunderstanding!” the person yelped as he tried to dodge Tsuna’s attacks. He slipped on a wet spot in the bathroom and fell awkwardly onto his leg with a muted ‘thump’. Tsuna took the chance to dart out of the toilet and scampered back to his room, slamming the door shut behind him and locking it. He then dove into his bed and pulled the blankets over himself, clinging onto the childish belief that it would protect him from any and all evil forces that were lying in wait to kill him.

-o-

**Morning, Sunday.  
Moriki High School, Dormitories. **

Tsuna was awoken by a knock at his door. Sleepily, he dragged himself out of bed to answer the door. A woman with blue shoulder length hair greeted him.

“Hello, are you Sawada Tsunayoshi?” the woman asked. Tsuna blinked slowly and rubbed at his eyes in order to further wake himself up. Then he nodded at the woman’s question. The woman smiled and continued. “Were you the one who assaulted Fon in the toilet last night?”

Immediately, Tsuna was wide awake.

-o-

They were called the Arcobaleno, and they were paranormal investigators. The school had called them in a day after Akiyama went missing. They had very fancy, very expensive, very _heavy_ equipment that were supposed to be able to detect ghosts. They were going to set up the equipment today but Tsuna injured one of the people who were in charge of moving the equipment.

 “I’m sorry!” Tsuna apologised profusely. “I didn’t know—I thought you were… I thought you were…” Tsuna degressed into unintelligible gibberish.

“No, it’s fine! I should not have snuck up on you like that!” Fon told Tsuna. His left ankle was bandaged because he sprained it when he had fallen onto the floor.

“Oh dear, what shall we do without Fon?” the one in the hooded cloak – Mammon, they had called themselves – sighed dramatically. “With one less person, it would be harder for us to carry out our investigation!”

“I’ll help!” Tsuna volunteered, his guilt leaving him no other option. Mammon smirked.

“Alright then,” they said. “You’ll be doing part of Fon’s job while he’s incapacitated. We won’t pay you, but that’s obvious, isn’t it?”

“Y-yeah,” Tsuna agreed, feeling somewhat in over his head at the moment. “That’s only fair.”

“Oh boy.” He heard someone – Colonello, probably – mutter. “The poor sap.”

-o-

**Sunday, Afternoon.  
Moriki High School, Computer Lab 2.**

Tsuna had been assigned to the tall man who wore a black suit. Tsuna remembered that his name was Reborn. Reborn looked faintly amused by the entire situation.

They worked in silence, setting up speakers and cameras in various areas of the school, and only spoke when Reborn was telling Tsuna to do something, or when Tsuna had a question about the equipment.

Tsuna didn’t _only_ have questions about the equipment but he was a little too intimidated to ask them, especially considering that he had injured someone on their team.

“This is the first time someone has mistaken Fon for a ghost,” Reborn commented. It took a while for Tsuna to process that it wasn’t instruction but when he did, he flushed red.

“I-I-I I didn’t mean to!” he stuttered out. Reborn rolled his eyes and waved off Tsuna’s attempts at _another_ apology.

“Yeah, yeah. You’ve apologised enough. Stop that.”

“…sorry. It’s just that, I was a little high strung and so I didn’t really process that Fon wasn’t the _nure onago_ …”

“Wait. _Nure onago_?” Reborn questioned. Tsuna nodded slowly.

“Yeah, wasn’t it mentioned by the students? Akiyama told us that the person opposite the bus stop was a _nure onago_ and that she started following him because he talked to her.”

“No, the students didn’t mention her,” Reborn replied, looking pensive.

“Maybe they were afraid to talk about it. I mean, Akiyama _did_ say that they fed on attention…” Tsuna paled. “Hiiieee! Does that mean she’ll come after me next?!”

“No, she won’t,” Reborn said bluntly. “And besides, a _nure onago_ in the middle of a city? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“What do you mean?” Tsuna asked. Reborn didn’t answer, only grabbing Tsuna’s hand and briskly walking back to the dormitories.

“We have to talk to Verde about this.”

-o-

“ _Nure onago_ appear on nights of heavy rain, near water bodies such as lakes, rivers, and swamps. There are no such water bodies around the area, not even canals,” Verde stated. “Also, _nure onago_ just follow their victim around for life. They are not malicious and do not kidnap or kill people.”

“But, well…” Tsuna trailed off as he thought back to the day Akiyama told the class about the _nure onago_. “I thought that he was lying at first because he didn’t seem scared at all. He just seemed like… I don’t know. But he wasn’t scared. But then! The days before Akiyama disappeared, he started acting like there was something following around and he kept talking about the smell of pond water and fish! He was really scared and… you can’t fake that sort of thing.”

“I see.” Verde adjusted his glasses. “And what was the time lapse between the day he first mentioned the _nure onago_ and the day he started to act oddly?”

“Um… a few weeks, I believe. Um, it started about three weeks into the semester?” Tsuna mumbled to himself, counting on his fingers. “And then a week before today… probably.” Verde waited patiently for Tsuna to finish. “Almost four weeks.”

“Hm.” Verde contemplated the new knowledge. “That—”

Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by a scream from one of the monitor speakers. Verde immediately directed his attention back to the monitor screams to see that one of the cameras had lost its video feedback and was now displaying static. Its audio feed was still working, though, and Tsuna could hear the sound of a dog growling. Verde was speaking rapidly into a walkie-talkie.

“Hello? Skull? Are you there? Over.”

There was a crackle and then Skull’s voice came through.

“Verde? There’s something here but I don’t know—” His voice was abruptly cut off. Verde tried to reach him again, but to no avail. Reborn snatched the walkie-talkie from Verde.

“Lackey, you’d better answer me right now or the consequences will be… _unpleasant._ Over.”

There was still no answer and Reborn seemed a little worried. The walkie-talkie suddenly crackled again but it was Lal who spoke.

“He was at the sports field, wasn’t he?” Lal said. “Colonello and I will go look for him. Over.”

“You do that. Over.” Verde took the walkie-talkie back from Reborn’s hands, an annoyed look on his face. “You have your own walkie-talkie. There is no reason for you to take mine.”

“Whatever.” Reborn stood up. “Tsuna and I will go measure the temperatures in the rooms.” He started to walk out of the room.

“But, what about Skull?” Tsuna asked. Reborn shrugged.

“He’s not helpless. And besides, Lal and Colonello are enough backup for him.” Reborn tugged his fedora down a little so that the rim cast a shadow over his eyes.

“It was the demon dog, wasn’t it?” Tsuna said. Reborn nodded and Tsuna looked at his feet. The dog had never shown up in broad daylight before, what had caused it to change?

Tsuna rubbed at his chest to assuage the heaviness in his chest.  

He had a bad feeling about all of this.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sunday, Afternoon.  
Moriki High School, Class 1-C**

“Measuring the temperature when everything is normal lets us know when there is a significant drop,” Reborn explained in reply to Tsuna’s question. “When there is supernatural activity, the area tends to become colder.”

“Oh. I see.” It was fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Tsuna was pretty sure he was going to be paranoid every time he felt the slightest bit cold.

The device in his hand beeped and he read out the temperature so that Reborn could write it down. Unconsciously, his eyes drifted to the walkie-talkie clipped onto Reborn’s belt. Upon seeing this, Reborn sighed.

“He’ll be fine,” Reborn repeated for the umpteenth time. “He’s an experienced exorcist.”

“I know,” Tsuna replied. He said nothing else but continued to glance at the walkie-talkie throughout the entire time they were taking temperatures.

-o-

When Tsuna got back to the reception room, he couldn’t describe the relief he felt when he saw Skull sitting on one of the couches, treating his wounds. Without any thought, Tsuna quickly rushed to his side and started helping him.

“You’re fine, thank god!” Tsuna breathed a sigh of relief. Skull looked a little taken aback at the amount of concern Tsuna had for him.

“Of course I’m fine! A simple specter like that couldn’t take down the great Skull!” Skull laughed awkwardly, trying to play off the embarrassment he felt.

“Ah, I guess.” Tsuna placed a plaster on Skull’s cheek and pulled back. The troubled expression on his face was back again. “I didn’t think the dog would show up in the daytime, though. It only shows up at night… at least that’s what I thought.”

“And how would you know that?” Verde asked. Tsuna adverted his eyes.

“On Wednesdays and Fridays, I end school at seven. I have to cross the field in exactly two minutes if I want to get into my room before the sun sets. After that, I’ll have to wait around two hours for the lights in the corridor to switch on before I can go to the toilet. The dog will give a bark at exactly seven forty-four, signaling its arrival. It will circle the dorms for thirty minutes after which it’ll bark at eight fourteen and then go to some other part of the school to continue its horrible patrol.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“That’s… very detailed…” Colonello commented. The only sound in the room apart from his voice was the scribbling of Verde’s pencil on paper and the mechanic hum of the air conditioner.

“I don’t like dogs,” was all Tsuna said.

“Is there anything else you noticed?” Verde asked. Tsuna thought for a while before shaking his head.

“No, there’s nothing else.”

-o-

_“I love you, I love you. Don’t you love me too?”_

Tsuna faltered in his step but he did not stop. That voice gave him a bad feeling.

“What is it, Tsuna?” Reborn asked. “Did you hear something?”

_“Do you hear me? Do you hear me?”_

“No, I heard nothing. I was just catching my breath.”

“Seriously?” Reborn was unimpressed. “You barely did any heavy lifting today! You’re _weak_.”

_“So you’re not the one either… who is it, where is he. Where is my love?”_

Tsuna gave an awkward laugh and quickened up to get closer to Reborn.

“Say, Reborn, do you know of any sort of chant that could protect you from evil spirits?”

-o-

Tsuna was in class, listening to the teacher drone on and on about their current literature text. Yeah, it was something about an unrequited love, Tsuna knew. He had been talking about that theme every day for the entire term. About light and darkness in a human society and how people always tossed out those who didn’t fit…

Wait, _that_ was the theme! Then what was the whole unrequited love about?

Tsuna looked down to look at his notes and froze.

_Love love velovelvelove I lveo you love you lovelove I love_

There were messy black scribbles all over his notes and his table. He looked around him to see if anyone noticed it but he wasn’t in his classroom anymore. He was sitting at his desk in the middle of a lake. The water was so clear that he could see the stones that lay _way_ down at the bottom of the lake. He could even see the little fishes swimming around in the lake—

Black ink pooled on the papers and dripped off his desk into the murky and dark, disgustingly dirty waters below his feet. The stench of dirty water and rotting fish permeated the air. He felt something cold and wet press itself against his legs. Without his consent, his head tilted down to see stringy wet clumps of dark hair lying limp on his lamp, covering a face supported by a pair of pale, bluish arms resting on his thighs. He opened his mouth to scream and

He couldn’t breathe. Water went into his lungs instead of air. Tsuna tried to swim his way up but… he couldn’t swim, could he?

It was still holding onto his legs. He couldn’t kick it away. He reached out in one last desperate attempt to escape and a hand grabbed him before he was tugged out of the water and into the light. He heard the thing give an enraged shriek and let go of him as if it was burnt.

“You have to wake up.” Tsuna looked up to see a woman with blue eyes and hair tied into a ponytail. Tsuna would have mistaken her for Aria, except Aria’s hair wasn’t that long.

“You have to wake up,” she repeated. “It’s not safe for you to sleep here.”

“What do you mean?” Tsuna asked. Before the woman could answer, however, something came flying out of the water and wrapped itself around his body. Tsuna couldn’t breathe, it was forcing the air out of his lungs, Tsuna couldn’t

It was raining and Tsuna was at the bus stop. There was something sitting on one of the benches. Except, there wasn’t? There was nothing sitting there and there would be nothing sitting there until Tsuna thought there would. Until _he_ said there would. Until the person whose role Tsuna was playing brought it back with him.  

Tsuna was holding onto a bag. The orange keychain on the bag read ‘Aki—’

“You have to wake up.” The person who looked like Aria but wasn’t Aria was standing in front of him again. She looked worried as she glanced over her shoulder to the bench at the bus stop. “I can’t keep it away for long. You have to wake up. You have to—”

Tsuna opened his eyes to see that he had fallen asleep in the reception room. Someone was in the midst of draping a blanket over him.

“Oh, did I disturb you? I’m sorry,” Aria said, drawing back. “You just seemed a little cold. You were trembling.”

“…” Tsuna stared at Aria’s face. It really was almost exactly the same as the woman from his dream. Tsuna debated on whether he should tell Aria that but decided against it. It would be a little weird to tell someone you’ve just met that you were dreaming of someone who looked like them.

“Is something wrong?”

“No! No, it’s nothing…” Tsuna hesitated. “I just had a weird dream, that’s all. I guess I’m a little scared about the entire situation.”

“It’s normal to be scared, don’t worry about it. If you’d like, I can ask Mammon to let you go. Fon has probably recovered enough to work.”

“No thank you. I… I just have a feeling that it’s…” _too late for me_.

Aria patiently waited for Tsuna to finish his sentence.

“My mother always taught me to finish what I started, so I’m going to see this to the end,” Tsuna said instead. It wasn’t a _lie_ per se. His mother _did_ tell him that. However, this was the first time he was going to actively follow that set of instructions.

Well, better late than never.

“That’s noble,” Aria said, smiling. It instantly made Tsuna feel guilty, but he couldn’t take back his words now.

Something cold and wet brushed against Tsuna’s feet. He didn’t look down.

-o-

**Monday, Morning.  
Moriki High School, Class 1-A.**

Math wasn’t something that came easily to Tsuna, but Tsuna could still somewhat appreciate it. There was always a set answer, a decided outcome. Right was right and wrong was wrong. There weren’t any gray areas that could be argued, that one person’s actions in not visiting another was alright because he had a ‘legitimate’ reason to be away from home.

Tsuna might’ve been projecting a little. _Just_ a little.

Tsuna glanced up to copy something from the board and froze. It was only a split second but he had seen…

Spiky brown hair, not unlike his. The Moriki High School uniform worn in an incredibly familiar way. A black bag by the side of the table with an orange keychain.

And then the image was gone. Tsuna rubbed his eyes and looked away. He must have been really affected by the investigation.

_“I love you, don’t you love me?”_

Tsuna pressed his pencil a little harder onto the book he was writing on.

-o-

**Monday, Afternoon.  
Moriki High School, Hallway.**

While Tsuna wasn’t very close to Akiyama, Akiyama often invited Tsuna to eat with him and his friends. Even after Akiyama was… gone, Tsuna still continued to eat with said friends. They didn’t seem to be around today, though, so Tsuna decided to go up onto the roof and eat by himself. Akiyama always found it strange, how Tsuna was always so excited to go and eat on the roof. He never really understood that, to Tsuna, eating on the roof was an extremely novel idea. There had been someone back in Namimori who had claimed the entire roof as his territory and would beat up anyone who dared step foot on the roof. Tsuna was very good at blocking out bad memories, though, so he couldn’t quite remember who it was.

It was a little funny, Tsuna thought to himself as he walked down the hallway. It was lunchtime, wasn’t it? Why was there hardly anyone in the halls?

There was a rustle as he stepped on something. He looked down to see that it was a piece of paper. Taking a closer look, he recognized what it was. It was the _kokkuri-san_ thing that Akiyama made about a week ago! What was it doing here?

_Kokkuri-san_ was said to be a spirit that was summoned during a ritual and one could ask it to answer questions. It was nothing serious, just people putting their fingers on a coin and seeing where it would go after asking a question. A few people had done things like it back in Namimori, so Tsuna didn’t really see any problem when Akiyama asked him to join him and his friends in _kokkuri-san_.

Tsuna could’ve sworn that they threw this paper away in the large garbage can outside of school, though. Perhaps one of Akiyama’s friends had fished it out for the hell of it?

“…na. Tsuna!”

Tsuna jumped and the piece of paper slipped from his hands. One of Akiyama’s friends, Shizuki, had been calling him.

“Oh, Shizuki! Hello,” Tsuna gave an awkward wave. Shizuki laughed.

“Man, you’re really out of it today! We’ve been trying to get your attention since class ended!” Shizuki gestured to the two boys behind him, Sato and Himura. Sato seemed a little distracted by something while Himura looked concerned.

“Are you alright, Sawada?” Himura asked. “You seemed like you were… in a trance or something.”

“I’m… fine, I think,” Tsuna replied. Himura didn’t seem convinced but he backed off.

“Alright then. Let’s go up to the roof?”

“Sure.” Tsuna looked around for the piece of paper he dropped but it was nowhere to be found.

The wind must have blown it away.

-o-

“Man, I had the weirdest dream last night!” Shizuki said. Sato wrinkled his nose.

“Don’t talk with your mouth fool,” he chided. Shizuki rolled his eyes and made an effort to chew with his mouth open. Sato punched him in the shoulder and Himura giggled. Unconsciously, both he and Tsuna looked to the spot where Akiyama used to sit, but saw nothing there. Himura was the first to look away.

“It’s… a bit lonely, isn’t it?” he asked Tsuna. Tsuna nodded in agreement and Himura gave a small sigh. “I mean, even Shizuki is overcompensating for the silence by acting more…” He gave waved at Shizuki’s general direction and Tsuna turned to see that Shizuki was trying very hard to annoy Sato.

“ANYWAY!” Shizuki yelled loudly. “Do you guys want to hear about my dream? Yes? Good.” He didn’t wait for an answer before plowing on. “I dreamt that I was in a really cool lake! Like, I was standing on it. The lake was _super_ clear and I could even see the bottom!”

Tsuna felt a chill run down his spine. Both Himura and Sato were staring at Shizuki with wide eyes.

“Did… did the water turn dirty for you too?” Sato asked. Shizuki shot him an odd look.

“You had the same dream?”

“I did too,” Himura said quietly. Tsuna adverted his eyes, not wanting to say anything.

“What, seriously? Man, this is really creepy.” Shizuki laughed awkwardly. “Do you think…” His gaze skittered towards the place Akiyama was supposed to sit before quickly moving away.

“Let’s not talk about this,” Sato said curtly, effectively ending the conversation.

The boys quickly finished up their food and moved back to the classroom.

-o-

**Monday, Afternoon.  
Moriki High School, Reception Room.**

“Um, aren’t you afraid of… ghosts?” Tsuna asked Fon. Fon had been sitting by himself in the reception room when Tsuna entered.

“Hm, not really,” Fon replied. “I don’t usually have encounters with the supernatural because my spiritual energy is pretty high. More particularly, my _yang qi_ ,” Fon explained. “Ghosts can’t get near me and they certainly can’t harm me. In fact, my spiritual energy is so strong that I may be able to chase a ghost out of someone’s body by just touching the person!”

_So, he’s a ghost repellent?_

Seeing Tsuna’s blank, uncomprehending face, Fon elaborated further. “In Taoist belief, there is something known as _yin yang_. _Yin_ is considered darkness while _yang_ is light. To be honest, having more _yin_ or _yang_ isn’t very good as balance is essential for a healthy spirit. Still, spirits tend to be unable to touch those with a lot _yang_ energy, but they are attracted to those with _yin_ energy or low spirit pressure.”

“Oh.” Tsuna _kind of_ got it. Akiyama had explained it a little to him before, about how he had a weak constitution because he had too much _yin_ in his body.

Tsuna still didn’t really understand how spiritual concepts were related to a body’s physical health, but he didn’t think it was very important to ask for clarification.

“I’m here to help out?” Tsuna said uncertainly after a long and awkward period of silence in which he and Fon just stared at each other. Fon shook his head.

“It’s fine! I can walk now,” Fon said. “You don’t have to cover me anymore.”

“But…”

“If he’s insisting, who are we to say anything?” Mammon said suddenly, causing Tsuna to shriek and dive behind Fon. “You still won’t be getting paid, though,” they continued, looking at Tsuna.

“Y-yeah… I know…” Tsuna mumbled out, trying to calm his racing heart. Fon chuckled and patted Tsuna on the head. Immediately, Tsuna relaxed. It was like a weight had lifted off of his shoulders and a paranoia Tsuna hadn’t been aware of went away.

“Good.” Mammon handed Tsuna a stack of paper. “Stay here with Fon and sort out these pieces of paper by incident.”

“Okay.”

“Honestly, Mammon,” Fon sighed. “Stop bullying the child! And to force him to do everything without pay, too. You really are too attached to money. You do realize that when you die, all the wealth you’ve amassed will be of no use to you? It would be better for you to spend more time on—”

“I hope you die slowly and painfully,” Mammon said flatly. Without waiting for a reply, they left the room. Fon looked confused.

“What did I do?”

-o-

**Monday, Evening.  
Moriki High School, Computer Lab. **

_“I love you.”_

Himura whimpered, covering his ears with his hands. “I can’t hear anything, I can’t hear anything, I can’t hear anything,” he chanted to himself.

_“Don’t you love me?”_

“I can’t hear anything, I can’t hear anything…”

A wet coin dropped in front of him and it was the last straw.

-o-

**Tuesday, Morning.  
Moriki High School, Class 1-A.**

Himura did not come to school.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> himura's not dead, don't worry. he just didn't want to go to school.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can you piece together what happened?

**Tuesday, Afternoon.  
Moriki High School, Rooftop. **

The phone rang once, twice, before it was picked up. Tsuna couldn’t describe the relief he felt when he heard Himura’s voice speak from the speaker of the phone.

“H-hello?” Himura asked tentatively.

“It’s Tsuna. I’m just calling in to check on you. You didn’t come to school today, so we were a bit concerned.”

“Oh… I see… I’m sorry for worrying you. I’m just…” Himura trailed off and Tsuna realised that his voice was shaking.

“You’re just what, Himura? You can tell us, seriously! We’re your friends, right?” Shizuki, ever the _tactful_ one, interjected.

“I… I don’t know what,” Himura said quietly. “I… think I’m going insane. I hear a voice and it keeps saying that it loves me. It’s scary, I’m scared, I…”  He suppressed a sob.

“Himura…”

“I can’t sleep or it’ll find me. I don’t want to sleep. I’m scared, I don’t know what to do, I don’t.” He took in a jagged breath. “I think it’s here, waiting for me outside my house. I don’t want to go out.”

Shizuki was uncharacteristically quiet. Sato looked grave.

“We understand. Stay in your house and be safe. We’ll visit you later today,” Sato said.

“Yeah.” Himura’s voice was very small and very tired. Tsuna felt sorry for him. “Thanks for, you know, not making fun of me.”

“It’s no problem. We’re friends, after all.”

-o-

**Tuesday, Afternoon.  
Moriki High School, Reception Room. **

“The ghost hunters? Why’d you bring us here?” Shizuki asked, tapping his foot impatiently. “In fact, why aren’t we going to Himura’s house right this very second?”

“You cannot doubt that whatever’s going after Himura is supernatural in nature. I was thinking that we might be able to get a charm from one of them, or we could be directed to a place where we could get charms,” Sato answered patiently. Tsuna felt out of place with them, wondering why he was there. He wasn’t exactly a friend of theirs, so he couldn’t understand why they wanted him to accompany them in seeing Himura.

The door slid open just as Sato was about to knock on it, revealing a man Tsuna had never met before. If Tsuna had to pick a word to describe him, it would be ‘monochrome’. The man had very pale skin, bordering on white, and he had coal black hair and eyes. He was wearing an entirely black and white suit as well, along with a top hat that was – of course – black.

A cool, assessing gaze swept over the three boys before it focused on Tsuna. Tsuna unconsciously took a step back and the corner of the man’s lips twitched a little.

“You must be Sawada Tsunayoshi, I take it?” he asked. Tsuna swallowed dryly but before he could answer, Sato and Shizuki were already stepping in front of him and putting themselves in between the man and Tsuna.

“’The hell are—” Sato clamped his hand over Shizuki’s mouth.

“Is there something you need, sir?” Sato asked, voice laced with forced politeness.

“The first thing you do in this school is frighten the students. Well done, Bermuda,” Reborn’s dry voice sounded from inside the room. Tsuna could see some movement behind Bermuda and soon saw Reborn roughly push Bermuda to the side. Reborn raised an eyebrow when he caught sight of Sato and Shizuki.

“Um, Reborn, do you have a charm that can ward away spirits or something?” Tsuna asked tentatively. Reborn shrugged.

“Yeah, we can make a few. Lal’s particularly good at them. Would you like one?” Reborn looked amused. “You probably don’t need it, though.”

“It’s not for me, it’s for Himura. Something’s following him around,” Tsuna said and proceeded to explain what Himura had told him. Reborn rolled his eyes.

“I think you should get your friend to a hospital—”

“May I point out that the two boys accompanying Tsunayoshi seem to have traces of spiritual possession?” Bermuda interrupted. Reborn’s eyes widened slightly and he whirled around to glare at Bermuda.

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?” he demanded. Bermuda just shrugged. Reborn turned back to the boys, all informality wiped from his face. “Come in and elaborate more about your situation,” Reborn said and stepped back. Tsuna was about to follow when Shizuki burst out.

“We can’t afford to do that right now! We have to get the charm and then get to Himura’s house! If we really are haunted, then Himura has got to be haunted as well!” Shizuki crossed his arms and glared at Reborn. “Give us the charm right now!” he demanded. Almost immediately after, Sato had his hand on the back of Shizuki’s head and forced him into a bow.

“I apologise for his rudeness; Shizuki is rather high strung at the moment. Please forgive him.” A pause. “Although, we would really appreciate it if you would be able to create a charm for us since we urgently need it at the moment. We’ll elaborate more after delivering the charm.”

Reborn hesitated for a moment. Bermuda took the chance to disappear into the room and come out with a talisman. He held it out to Shizuki.

“I’ll give you the charm on one condition,” Bermuda bargained. Shizuki looked like he was seconds away from just tackling Bermuda to the floor and snatching the charm straight from his hands. Even the seemingly eternally unflappable Sato appeared a little frustrated.

“What?”

“I’ll accompany you.” Bermuda smiled. It was kind of an eerie smile but Tsuna felt nothing wrong from it so he just nudged Sato and nodded minusculely. This was the best they could get under such short notice.  

“Alright,” Sato relented. “We leave immediately.”

-o-

**Tuesday, Afternoon.  
Moriki, Kikuno Road. **

It wasn’t just Bermuda who decided to accompany them, much to Tsuna’s relief. Reborn had decided to tag along as well, not trusting Bermuda to be alone with the boys.

As the group walked towards Himura’s house, a strange chill seemed to settle into Tsuna’s very bones. The sun was shining brightly, the birds were chirping noisily, and there was no wind whatsoever. Reborn had loosened his tie and unbuttoned the first two buttons of his dress shirt while Bermuda had taken off his jacket. Tsuna, however, only could feel the icy coldness of a winter lake permeating through his entire body hitting him all at one go.

Tsuna phone suddenly began to ring, much to his shock. He jumped a little and fumbled as he tried to get his phone out and receive the call.

“H-hello?” Tsuna asked.

“…Tsuna?”

“Himura!” Immediately, Shizuki and Sato’s attention snapped to Tsuna. “Is something wrong? What happened?”

“She’s gone,” Himura said quietly. There was relief in his voice, but Tsuna could also make something else out. He decided to ignore it.

“She’s gone?” Tsuna decided to repeat for the sake of those listening in. “That’s good, isn’t it?”

“…” Himura’s hesitation didn’t give Tsuna any assurance.

“It has to be in order,” Himura finally said. “She wanted to be in order. I wasn’t second, I was third.” That didn’t make any sense.

“What are you talking about, Himura?” Tsuna asked, gripping the phone tighter. He could hear his heart pounding in his head.

There were no birds.

“Don’t you realise?” Himura burst out suddenly. “We didn’t finish properly! Akiyama wanted to keep the coin! We just _threw_ the paper away! We didn’t ask if she wanted to leave, we didn’t move the coin out of the gate, we didn’t…” his voice broke and Himura started to sob.

“Himura, what are you—”

_“You’re not getting away this time, you won’t be able to run from me, that redstorm man can’t help you, he’s not here. He can’t drive me away this time!”_

The last thing Tsuna saw was Shizuki and Sato rushing forward to catch him as he fell.

-o-

Tsuna looked around him. He was in the science lab and Shizuki was in front of him.

“Shizuki—” Tsuna started but Shizuki just stood up from his seat, not even sparing Tsuna a glance. Before Tsuna could feel hurt or anything, Shizuki walked towards Tsuna and—

Shizuki walked through him.

 _“Sawada! Akiyama! You’re finally here!”_ Shizuki grinned. Tsuna turned around to see Akiyama standing in the doorway. Behind him was Tsuna himself, looking a little awkward and out of place, constantly glancing down the hall, wondering if he should leave. It was incredibly unnerving for Tsuna to see himself in the flesh, even if the other-Tsuna couldn’t see him.

 _“Yo! Shizuki!”_ Akiyama nodded. He entered the room, dragging other-Tsuna along with him, and Tsuna suddenly remembered what this was. _When_ this was.

 _“Good evening Akiyama, Sawada,”_ Himura greeted shyly. He and Sato were sitting at a table and Akiyama quickly ushered the others to that table before taking out something from his bag.

 _“Here’s the paper!”_ he said, placing it onto the table. _“And here’s the coin.”_

 _“Cool, I’ve never done kokkuri-san before!”_ Shizuki said excitedly. Himura looked both curious and apprehensive. Sato, in the other hand, looked like he had a million other things he’d rather be doing.

Tsuna saw something move from the corner of his eye. He turned to the window to see what it was and his breath caught.

_The science labs were on the third level, weren’t they…?_

A woman was outside the window, palms pressed against the glass and facing the group of four boys. Her straggly damp hair fell in front of her face, but Tsuna could see enough of it to know that she was smiling widely, _anticipatorily_. She was right there, _right there_ , a splash of eerie and unnatural colour against the black backdrop of the night outside so _why_ _wasn’t anyone saying anything?!_

“They can’t see her.” Tsuna spun around to see the woman who looked like Aria standing behind him. “ _You_ can’t see her,” the woman continued somewhat sadly. “Not when you’re not here.”

 _“Oh right! I’ve forgotten!”_ Akiyama exclaimed. He walked over to the window, walked over to where that _thing_ was, and opened it. _“The window needs to be open so that kokkuri-san can enter the room,”_ he explained as he walked back to his seat. To Tsuna’s horror, he saw the _thing_ enter the room through the open window. Immediately, he closed his eyes and covered his ears. He didn’t want to see it, he didn’t want to see what happened next.

The woman who looked like Aria didn’t allow him the privilege of ignorance. He was forced to watch as Akiyama, Shizuki, Himura, Sato, and other-Tsuna went through the rituals to summon the spirit.

_“Kokkuri-san, kokkuri-san…”_

Akiyama asked a few questions before he ran out of things to say and prompted the other boys to ask questions as well. Other-Tsuna was the first one to give into Akiyama.  

Just as Tsuna himself remembered doing, other-Tsuna took a deep breath and stared down at the paper and coin.

_“When will my father come to visit me?”_

-o-

After other-Tsuna asked his question, it was Himura’s turn. Himura didn’t really ask much, just generic questions he already knew the answer to, ask if he was testing the validity of the ritual. After that, it was Shizuki’s turn to ask a question. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by an annoyingly catchy tune coming from his pocket. It was his phone.

Shizuki took his hand off the coin to answer his phone and the rest of the group, deciding that it was time to end the ritual, did the same. Akiyama picked up the coin, flipping it up in the air and catching it mid-descent.

 _“I’m keeping this,”_ he said. _“It’s kinda cool to own something that’s been used in a ritual! Does anyone want to keep the paper?”_

 _“Nah,”_ Shizuki replied. Himura shook his head and other-Tsuna simply looked away. Akiyama turned to Sato, only to be met with a deadpan look which was an answer in itself.

 _“Suit yourself,”_ Akiyama shrugged and picked up the piece of paper as well. _“We’ll just throw this in the dumpster on the way out.”_ At that, the five boys then picked up their things and made their way out of the science labs.

The thing giggled and trailed after them, dripping greenish droplets of water on the floor as it glided through the air, its now visible milky white-grey eyes trained on Akiyama’s back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the part with akiyama is tsuna's dream, if you were confused.


End file.
